SOCIAL JUSTICE

My Dominican Republic friends have taught me so much about social justice. My church goes there regularly as we discover that we have far more to learn from them then they do from us. Their ministry is the ministry of wholism. I have come to believe that followers of Christ in under-resourced areas have more to teach us then we can teach them.

Alan Hirsch, an Australian, visited Africa for a while before he came to the united states to live for a year. He said that when he was in Africa, he was working amongst the poor. When he came to the U.S., though, his culture shock was to see the poverty. Poverty in spirit and in relationships. In one country he saw a lot of poor, but little poverty, in the other country he found the opposite. He found, though, even when he lived in Australia, as his church was ministering to the red light district, the prostitutes did not like Christians, because they did not feel safe around them. But they all seemed to light up when he brought up Jesus. They loved Jesus

When our faith becomes compartmentalized from how we live, we are not the only ones to suffer. The world misses out. If we don't allow the Christ to transform us, how can we transform the world so they can be transformed in Christ?

Jesus hung out with the poor, if we are Christians (little Christ), then why don't we? The poor teach us how to love.